“She’s so cute, she carries that toy around like it’s her puppy.”
“I know, she even growls when I try to take it. So cute!”
“Aww … she’s protecting it. If I try to put it away, she sits and cries for her baby. Haha!”
Have you ever caught yourself saying something like this? I made up the above conversation, but I hear similar comments all the time. I’ve even encouraged my own dog to carry a stuffed toy around because I think it’s cute. But that’s the problem. We think it’s cute when really it’s unhealthy for a dog to obsess over a toy.
Dogs know their toys are not real.
When a dog carries her toy around all day, it is because she is obsessive or possessive about the toy. She does not think it is real. She knows it’s not her puppy. It’s us humans who create emotional attachments to stuffed animals. Dogs know better.
A dog with pent-up energy easily takes that frustration and fixates on a toy or several toys. If the dog is not given exercise, mental challenges or rules on a daily basis, the obsession on the toy grows because she has no other outlet for her energy.
We humans think it’s cute to see our dogs obsess over a toy so we even encourage the behavior. We say things over and over in an excited voice like, “Where’s your puppy?” Or, “Where’s your ball?” And then we overdo the praise and attention. We reward the obsessive behavior without even realizing it.
Obsessing over a toy can lead to aggression.
If your dog growls when you try to take her toy away, it’s not cute. I see owners of small breeds like Chihuahuas encouraging their dogs to growl because they think it’s funny. Encouraging aggressive behavior in a dog is never funny. A five-pound dog can bite someone pretty badly, especially a child who has her face up to the dog.
We think it’s cute if a rottweiler carries a stuffed puppy around all day. We like to nurture small, cute things, so we like it when our dogs do the same. We like the idea that our dog has her own “baby.” Many of us carried around stuffed animals as a kid, so it’s heartwarming to us when our dogs do the same.
Even when a rottweiler growls as someone tries to take her toy, it’s easy to overlook the behavior if the dog is gentle in all other situations. The only time my old golden retriever growled at me was when I tried to take her rawhide bone away. Since I knew she would never hurt anyone, I didn’t take her growling too seriously. But even she would snap if I tried to take her bone. This was a behavior I should not have put up with, but I didn’t know better at the time.
Of course, just because a dog loves a certain toy doesn’t mean she has issues. Just learn what the difference is between a normal dog playing and a dog that is starting to become possessive of the toy.
Signs of possessiveness to watch for:
- The dog growls, bites, barks or snaps when someone tries to take the toy.
- She refuses to give up a toy.
- The dog cries or searches for a toy once it is put away.
- The dog is fixated on the toy.
- She starts fights with other dogs when the toy is in the room.
- The dog intentionally or accidentally snaps at hands to grab the toy before it’s been given to her.
- She takes the toy and hides in a corner.
- The dog is very submissive and the toy is the one thing she “controls.”
- The dog is dominant and aggressive around other objects such as food or bones.
Ways to prevent possessiveness:
- Set time limits on when the dog can have the toy, maybe 10 minutes at a time.
- Make sure the dog understands that the toy is yours and you can take it whenever you want.
- Teach your dog the “leave it” command.
- Keep the toy out in the dog’s sight, but don’t let her have it until you say so.
- Don’t encourage obsessive, possessive or aggressive behavior.
- Make sure your dog gets enough exercise.
- Set rules for your dog and follow through.
Is your dog possessive about anything? My dog is obsessed with tennis balls, and he will growl at certain dogs if they try to take a bone from him.
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Ha! Yes, I have heard people make those statements about dogs thinking something is their baby, etc. Great post, most don’t realize that doggy OCD (for lack of a better term) is real and that an obsessive dog is one that is under-stimulated or under-(insert activity here).
Very true – one of our dogs sleeps with the toy duck and hides it outside just in case we try and take it when he is not looking. Woof!
Our old GSD used to be fixated on tennis balls. It was pretty annoying. Fortunately Biggie is not obsessive about anything except guarding, and even that’s not really obsession. We just joke that it is. And he’s not really possessive about anything, we are very lucky that he has such a great disposition.
When he wants to play with someone (another dog or person), he’ll sometimes grab something and shake it around and try to get you to chase him. But if you look at him and tell him you want it, or tell him to drop it, he does.
His breeder got him started, and we continued to work with him, to not be food aggressive or possessive about anything. So far it has worked.
Good information for sure. Toys are great but obsession and resource guarding are not, for sure.
As for growling… it is okay within limits. My dogs growl at me, but it’s giving me information… mostly they are complaining and I know it won’t go further, so I do not dissuade them from their growling.
I had a major issue last Thursday night. I haven’t written about it yet but plan to soon. It involved protecting a bone, and biting me. *sigh*
Just because a dog carries around a toy does not mean it is obsessed. The other signs, yes. But not just carrying it around. Especially in retriever breeds. My dogs will frantically search for a toy to carry around when I first get home. They will show me what they have and shove it at me daring me to tug on it and toss it for them a time or two. (labragifting) but will loose interest after awhile. If i get up to change rooms the ritual will begin again and the labragifting happens all over. The retrieving impulse/response is deeply breed in them and as long as it does not become possessiveness, it is a completely healthy and normal retriever behavior.
I don’t think it’s OK for my dog to growl at me, even if he has a toy and I want to take it. Play growling is one thing though. Ace growls sometimes when we’re playing and that’s different.
Ace does the whole grab something and show it to me in every room we go to as well. I know some goldens who do this too! It’s different than carrying around one specific toy all day long or staring at a ball nonstop no matter what.
I haven’t noticed my Diesel being involved with his toys to the point of obsession. If he has a toy longer than a week, i would consider it to be extremely durable, as he likes to try and trash each toy to shreds. He has a couple of favorites that i must admit i took away from him, because of the “mess” the shreds make on my floor. If i remove the label from an empty water bottle, he loves it! http://friskypups.com
My chihuahua is obbsessed with a stuffed squirell and does try to bite when i take it from her. I tried to hide it or put it where she can see it but cant reach it and she goes insane starts shaking and whining and wont stop she hasnt eaten because of it and wont leave the chair where she and it sit because she cant get it back up there…HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Throw that toy away, or put it away somewhere on another level of the house when she isn’t around. She will eat when she is hungry, don’t worry about that.
Then start some serious training with your dog to show her you are in charge, not her. That means you control the toys. Also, take her for a long walk every day so she gets enough exercise and doesn’t have pent-up energy left to obsess over a toy. I wouldn’t let her have toys or bones at all unless she is playing normally and is not in that fixated, obsessive state of mind.
We left for New Year’s for 6 days. Our neightboor looked after Jessie and gave her two small stuffed animals. We have bought toys for her before and she just chews them up. This time, she is obsessive. She is not growling at us, but at our male dalmation. She is acting like a mother to these toys inclduing licking them clean after we hold them. She will not leave them and is refussing to eat. We have showed our dominance by picking up and moving the toys. She doesnt like us having them but does not try to bite or growl. She just gets real anxious. I am thinking about throwing them away, but what will that do to her?
Throw them away. But watch and make sure she doesn’t become possessive/obsessive over any other toys. Don’t worry about her, she’ll get over it. Dogs move on a lot better than people do. If she does seem weird after you throw the toys away, then distract her by taking her out for a run, working on training or playing with her.
my dog stays with a toy duck all day. Won’t go outside or eat unless you bring it to her. Just sits all day with this toy.
i have a chihuahua at the moment she thinks a pig (soft toy) is her puppy or something i dont no if its the same thing as others have written about there dogs or not but my chihuahua only acts possessive of 1 toy and only when she is on or coming on 2 heat.she humps it furiously just before she comes on heat. so is this just an obsession or does she really just want to be a mum?
oh plus my brothers pitbull had puppies they are only 4 weeks he brought one round and she left the pig and acted as if the puppy was hers let it nuzzle into her to sleep and got really anxious if anybody touched it. when he took it away she chased him and after he left she went straight back to the pig. she hardly ever leaves her bed i have to make her most of the time she is going to be 5 this year is that to old to breed a chihuahua?
Instead of breeding her, why not have her spayed and give her more exercise? She doesn’t want to be a mom, she just doesn’t know what to do because she has pent-up energy and she is bored.
I would definitely put that pig away and only let her have it for a few minutes a day.
All of those signs of ‘possessiveness’ is exactly the way my dog acts and MORE! My dog gets really, REALLY obsessive when it comes to toys. We can go and buy lets say 6-7 new toys and 4-5 rawhides(mind you I have 3 other dogs plus him)and within an hour he will have all of the new toys and rawhides gathered up and he will have dragged them under the bed…yea I know! He is almost all the time under the bed and any time you get around or even near the bed he will start growling. He carries the toys outside with him when they use the ‘potty’ and freaks out when we take them away. Once we crawled under the bed and took them all away, I thought the dog had a heartattack! The way he was shaking, crying, and just clawing at us to give them back! And what drives me crazy is the way he ‘washes’ all of the toys. He will sit and spend hours just licking them until they turn a disgusting color! Ugh it’s soooo annoying! I wish there was some easy way of correcting his problem! It’s not the other dogs because out of the other 3, only 1 actually plays with toys, the other 2 could careless as long as they have a rawhide! What is my dog’s problem!?
If you want to put a stop to this behavior, I recommend you follow some of the tips provided in the post. Don’t allow your dog to bring toys or bones under the bed. Make him play with toys out in the open and purposely take them away often for a few seconds at a time. Don’t give them back when he is freaking out because this just rewards the behavior. Give them back when he is calm, and keep taking them away. You’re right, there is no easy way to correct the problem.
omg, I’m not the only one seeing this with there dogs I guess. My maltess carries it around all day and cries and whimpers w/ it in her mouth, then puts it by her belly and licks it gently. When she picks the rubber dog up w/ her teeth it takes her like 5 minutes to gently pick it up so it doesnt hurt the dang toy hahaha well I dont know what she is thinking!
My moms chihuahua just had a puppy and it was still born she now treats her rubber toy dog like its her puppy licking it, protecting it, and even trying to get it to nurse. she is very possisive of it and freaks out when the other dogs come in the room or even other people going so far as to attack the other dogs and nip at my mom and dad. she has never done this befor and we are worried about her
I would throw that toy away. Then I would provide the dog with a lot of distractions such as long walks every day and training sessions to get her mind off it. I would avoid comforting her too much because that will just encourage and reward her behavior.
My dog is submissive but when there is a rawhide ANYWHERE in a room that she knows she can get(it doesn’t necessarily need to be line of sight) she growls and snaps when you try and pet her head. She doesn’t even chew on the rawhide in front of me because its almost like she’s afraid that I might take it if she does.(I have in the past… to discourage this behavior initially)
As soon as I put the rawhide on a shelf where she knows she doesn’t have access she immediately goes into a submissive state again(at this point I’m pretty displeased and she can pick up on it)
Is the only solution to this to simply never give her rawhide?
You need to claim the rawhide before you give it to her. Deliberately place it on the ground and don’t let her take it until you say it’s OK. If she tries to approach and take it, correct her and stand over the rawhide like another dog would do.
Put her leash on her whenever she will receive a rawhide. That way you will have more control and can take it from her whenever you want. I would practice this every day. Giver her the rawhide (after you’ve claimed it first) and then take it away. If she growls at you, you can’t back down. You have to move into her space and show her that you are not scared and that you own the rawhide.
I know this is easier said than done as it is scary when a dog is going to snap. And please be very careful. It helps to approach from the side without making direct eye contact. When she growls or snaps, don’t back away. She is most likely bluffing and will eventually give up if you hold your ground. Don’t put your hands out. Sit with your side to her or if she is a small dog, back her into a corner while standing and eventually you can just step on the rawhide and hold it there until she backs off.
Another option is the one you suggested – just don’t give her rawhides. But you may eventually see the behavior with toys or other objects if you don’t get it under control. Don’t be afraid to find a professional in your area to help you out.
Ok thanks for the advice I’ll try the leash thing.
She doesn’t take the rawhide in front of me unless I actually put it in her mouth and she’ll soon drop it unless I want to chase her around with it or something(like a normal toy). In fact she doesn’t even chew it in front of me anymore, but she is still sometimes aggressive when it is in the room and on floor level. Its so striking that immediately when the rawhide is not accessible she is again wagging her tail and/or being submissive(depending on how pissed off I am at her for being aggressive at that particular instance)
When she gets aggressive I never have backed down until I “won”. If she gets aggressive I do the hand nip at her neck area and get on top of her and pin her until she stops baring her teeth and then I remove the rawhide from access. Is this probably helping or hurting the situation?
Doing a “hand nip” at her neck will help if you have the timing right. Removing the rawhide from the situation unfortunately will not teach her anything. Instead, keep doing repetitions of giving her the bone and then taking it away maybe three or four times in a row a few times each day until she understands you can take the bone away whenever you want. It will probably take a few weeks for her to get it, but if you are consistent it should work.
Getting on top of her and pinning her down might be a bit extreme. I put dogs onto their sides in some cases where they have been aggressive or too excited, but I make sure to do it in a calm way. If I am angry and forceful, it just shows that I’m not really the one in control – I’m too emotional and upset. It can also end up scaring the dog and making her more aggressive.
Funny how dog’s minds work, isn’t it? I know what you mean about switching so fast from dominant to submissive. I’m working with a dog right now who is aggressive to strangers when she is off leash but as soon as her leash is on she is submissive and friendly. It’s the same concept.
[...] because the dog is “protecting” the toy or believes the toy is his baby. Trust me, dogs do not think their toys or other objects are their babies. Believing so would be humanizing the [...]
My dog shes 9 years old she’s never had puppies and shes not fixed we have a 5 year old cat that she has nursed since he was a baby and she has also nursed his duaghters and his mother and a couple other cats of ours she has two stuffed babys she has and she walks around with them and cries and when she goes into heat she trys to get the cat to nurse off of her what i want to know is she sad or is she just very motherly.
The dogs name is callie & the cats name is buddy there like best friends
I doubt that she’s sad. The motherly instincts come naturally to her, especially because she is not spayed. I’m glad your dog and cat are such good friends.
Hmm well have you ever considered that some dogs MAY actually think that their toy is a puppy? My dog is going through a phase called a “fake pregnancy,” when a couple of months after she is in heat, she’ll think she was pregnant and had puppies. She carries and hides her toys and will groom them as well. She is particularly fond of one toy- a small squeeky rat toy, and she whines whenever she carries and grooms it. What I wanted to know from google (and what led me to your site) was if she was crying because she thought that her “puppy” was dead, because it was not moving. She is not aggressive at all with her toys, and she really does get distressed and comes quickly if she hears her “puppy” calling to her (I squeak the toy). Also this really only happens after she’s in heat, afterwards, her toys are just toys. Just wanted to let you know that there is such a thing as a dog thinking her toys are puppies.
I agree with you Mendie!
My dog does the exact same thing! When she goes through about a week or so of this, her toys are just toys again. She goes on a fabulous nature walk with my husband every single day. There is no possible way she is lacking exercise or attention in this house. Im so glad I read about someone who understands. Thank you.
This doesn’t mean the dog actually believe her toys are puppies. She just goes through some instincts due to being in heat. Dogs also mark more and can become more possessive/territorial while in heat. These are just instincts.
I can relate to what Mendie is saying. I have a female mini-doxie who is not spayed yet. Without fail, 2 months after she is out of heat, she begins to carry around a stuffed animal (or 2) and clean it and keep it with her. She takes to her bed with the toy and won’t leave. She whines and cries and I feel helpless. So, this false pregnancy in female dogs does seem to bring on this type of behavior in my dog.
I disagree. A dog knows what is her puppies and what isn’t. Since she is not spayed, she still acts out some natural “motherly” instincts.
When we brought Charlie to the dark park soon after we got him we would throw his ball and if another dog got near it he would growl and even dropped the ball and snapped at another dog once. I worked with him and now if another dog is coming up to him while he has the ball he will move away but come back to me. Last weekend he dropped the ball and another dog took it away and he just walked away!
That’s awesome! Good work, and good boy Charlie!
I think it is funny how you are the only one in the world who knows anything about dogs.
I recently bought my dog a mini version of herself toy, usually she’ll go nuts and play with it but lately she has been whimpering when I squeak the toy as I try to play with her. Or she’ll start trembling/shaking when its not in her sight. She only started this behavior two days ago, I’m glad I found this site(:
I wouldn’t encourage her obsession over that toy. Encourage her to play with other toys and put them away after each play session.
weird!! I have a doberman she is almost two years old two days ago she just stated to carry her toy like it was her baby she never add any interest before for toys and if I take the toy away from her she will get back put it on her bed and sleep with it and sometime cries is this normal?
I would take the toy away and distract her with something better like a walk or play or training.
Is she spayed? Sometimes unspayed dogs go through some of these “mothering” instincts with a toy.
I am having some similar issues with our mini dachshund, she is 10 months old, she went through 1 heat cycle and then we decided to get her spayed.
That was 1 wk ago. Now she is obsessing over a little stuffed toy puppy, that shes had since she was a puppy (but never really showed any interest in) it has been down in her bed…. But, she wakes up in the morning goes outside and then right back in & down the stairs to get the puppy, she whines, carries it around and won’t eat her food at her feedings… although has NO problem eating, when offered treats, which makes me wonder, if we’re just rewarding this behavior…
Anyway, sorry for long post, just wondering if the spaying could have anything to do with her behavior, maybe her hormones are just out of whack??? IDK… please help!!
Don’t worry that she’s not eating. Don’t give her any treats or food in between meals. Give her five minutes to eat at her usual meal times and then put her food away. She may skip a few meals but then she will be hungry for the next one.
I’ve heard of other dogs doing this same behavior either when they are in heat but have never had puppies or shortly after they have been spayed but have had at least one heat cycle. Don’t encourage the behavior by laughing at her or talking about her while she’s being obsessive. Don’t acknowledge her at all when she does this. I would just throw the toy away and then encourage her to do other things. Take her for walks, work on tricks, whatever it is she loves to do.
We have taken the toy away, and she is back to her happy, playful self… weird!!!
Thanks for the advice!!
Oh, gosh! Well I’m glad that solved it. Watch her to make sure she doesn’t start acting that way around another toy. Rotate her toys so she doesn’t become obsessed with a single toy and limit the time she can have them. Also, make sure they are ultimately “your” toys.
I’m so glad someone pointed this out, my dog goes through this every few months of pretty much all these symptoms with one toy or so and cries obsessively when I have to leave, my mom and I have been thinking that since she hasn’t been spayed she is going through a thing where she wants puppies, my only question is what do I do since she’s already 5 years old? Certain boundries won’t work now, it isn’t like she’s still a puppy and hasn’t learned the rules, if we spring a new rule on her, like not letting her have a toy, for no reason she’ll think she’s done something wrong, that’s what my poodle book says, and she can’t go outside because of having respitory problums, so what do I do?
You can certainly change her rules. Dogs adapt easily. Just take the toys away and distract her with something else. Work on obedience training. Play a game of tug.
Or, if this isn’t a problem, just let her carry a toy around every few months.
my lil maltese loves this toy we call barney. there are tow of them. she tots them about and brings them to bed at night and other tines, just forgets about them. she knows when to ‘drop it’ and she knows if i take it to help her up on the couch (for example) she’ll get barney back. i don’t think she’s too horribly obsessed, though caesar milan might think so. interesting note, the sibling dog kills all toys. i mean ALL toys. he’s a chewer from hell. but he won’t kill barney. he inherently knows the maltese will kick his butt if he does. strange that.
Interesting. Thanks, Victoria!
Lindsay I have had two dog that thought thier toy was thier puppy the first time was right after my 1st son was born she cried like she was in pain & then later caried her toy all around with her & licked it, her tits started to fill up we were really worried took her to the vet,Whenever the vet said it was not uncommon & they gave us meds to help her & dry her milk that she had started to make. The 2nd one once again we took to the vet just to make sure once again they said she was okay & that it was not unusual. Sometimes its when they feel left out (such as when you bring home a new baby or another pet) .If you notice all most all of these dogs that do this are females. It seems when you are really close to the pet & something big changes in the household or right after they are in heat & their hormones do not return to normal right afterwards this seems to occur. Thanks for hearing me out .
Makes sense! Thanks, Shirley.
well my dog does this and she is WELL entertained. also she does not snap or do any of the other things you said they do, so im sorry but i think your statement is a load of crap!
Then what’s the problem then?
Thank you so much. What you say makes so much sense & is right on the money. My Chiquita became very possessive over a stuffed frog. She wouldn’t let it out of her sight and would growl at anything that came near it. She does everything you listed. She’s always been very energetic & since I became disabled and unable to take her for walks or to the park I totally get it. I know now what I have to do to allow her to get back to her normal self and back on both of our way to recovery.
So glad I could help!
Hi Lindsay, my poodle is having the exact symptoms as what you mentioned above. And so, we took her toy away and kept it at the place she can never reach. But she goes to every corner of the house crying and sniffing. She looks so miserable and has this heaving panting which she hardly had it in the past. She doesn’t want to do anything other than searching for that toy. We brought her out for a walk but still she sniffs around when she gets home. I’m worried. She’s crying again. What should I do now ?
Distract her with something like obedience training for highly valued treats (real chicken, cheese, etc.). Or offer her a Kong toy filled with goodies like peanut butter. Have her do something like sit or lie down before she gets it so she associates the reward for the behavior she just did (not the crying).
yeah, i have a question, i found this site because i searched “my dog thinks her toys are her puppies” …ur explanation above sounds completely logical but i think our situation is somewhat different. she has always loved her toys and pretty much played with them when we would get her interested…but we recently had her spayed and a day later she was obsessed with her toys…she knows if one is missing, she crys if she cant find them, she baths them, she has all of them in her bed and lays with them. she will not leave the bed, she has lost weight and wont even leave the bed to eat, we had to bring her food and water to her bed. the vet said she was “nesting” and gave us some meds to give her…said that she would be over it in a few days and she was, with meds she cared nothing for the toys, but now that we are out, its right back to being SUPER MOM!!! what should we do, just keep medicating her or what???
THANKS, stressed out SUPER OWNER!!! hahahaha
I would stop catering to her by bringing her food to her bed and that type of thing. Just get her out doing normal dog things like going for walks. Put all her toys away. Have one toy out at a time and if she starts going into that state of mind, just put the toy in an closet with the door shut. Distract her with a walk if needed or have her work on obedience-type commands for a treat.
I wouldn’t want to keep her on meds all the time, either.
sorry, its me again, left out a major factor…she has 26 toys of different shapes and sizes!!! its driving her and US…CRAZY!!!
my dog got like this, it was squeaky toy and she used to squeak asif to check it was still alive, she never got aggresive about it, she had other toys that she didn’t treat the same, we considered taking her to the vets after a couple of days cuz she started taking it outside every time we took it off her she would go mad, and she wouldn’t eat we left her to it but after it really started to worry me so i got her excited to go for a walk (when we mention wee wee she knows its time to go out and it was the only time she left her toy for a few seconds then realise she left her toy) then my partner took it from her bed behind her back we didnt give her chance to look for it and when we ame back and she noticed it wasn’t there she went crzy looking for it at first but we ignored her and carried on like normal and eventually she forgot about (as far as i know) i keep considering giving it her back or not because she has seemed depressed lately but then i dont want her to be the same way with that toy she still has her other toys that she isn’t obsessed over.